For those wishing to invest in their business, there are two key positive changes two changes.

The Annual Investment Allowance has been increased to £1 million, allowing significant plant and machinery costs to be set against annual accounts.

A new capital allowance has been introduced for non-residential buildings. This will allow 2% of the cost of buildings to be charged against the profit and loss account over a period of 50 years.

Further investment has been directed towards the forestry sector in England, with a £60million fund for tree planting. £50million of this will be provided through a woodland Carbon Guarantee Scheme to support the planting of 10 million trees. This announcement comes on the back of the launch of the “Forgotten Lands” Forestry Investment Zone in north Cumbria.

Rural transport links have also been considered, ‘The Road Investment Strategy 2’ will see funds pledged to the key A66 Trans Pennine route for further upgrades taking place between 2020 & 2025.

Of course, like most budgets, there are some elements of concern for rural businesses such as Land Value Capture on development schemes being given more weight for developers and local authorities to provide infrastructure and affordable housing.

At a local level, £8.5million has been provided to help a further 500 parishes draw up Neighbourhood Plans, which may result in the loss of potential development land around villages. This is not likely to affect towns, and the allocation of housing land by County Councils in their Strategic planning, however localism encourages communities to take ownership of their boundaries, which can result in a reluctance to see further development.

With reducing taxation measures and increased spending, as well as a broad strategy to increase housing provision to a level not seen since the 1970s, I do believe that overall the 2018 Autumn budget can be reviewed as positive.” Concludes Craig.